Choices: Ashley Pride - Designing a Beautiful Life

This is Ashley Pride's story...

Ashley Pride is a passionate person who has experienced many difficult events in her life. Despite this, she has found ways to cope and become a stronger person. One of the things she is most passionate about is helping others find what lights them up. After losing her nephew, Ashley struggled to deal with the grief. She eventually realized that she needed to find a different way to cope. This led her to the Kindness Community, which has helped her be more open and vulnerable. Self-care is important to Ashley. She enjoys taking long showers, listening to music, and looking at the clouds. She also believes that everyone is creative and that we should all take the time to create for the sake of creating.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. How Ashley Pride dealt with the loss of her nephew, and how she turned that experience into a positive by creating art and community. 

2. What self-care looks like for Ashley Pride, and how it has helped her to become a stronger person. 

3. How Ashley Pride's work as an artist has helped her to find joy and healing in her life.

"I'm passionate about being passionate, which I don't know if that's a thing that I realized until I got around, like, some fanatics and was magnetized by just how they were lit up. So finding ways to light other people up or helping them find what lights them up."

Resources:
You can find Ashley on Twitter at @apriddesigns, on Instagram at @apriddesigns, or on her website, AshleyPride.com.

Chapter Summaries:
[00:00:12] - Ashley is happy to be here.

[00:00:30] - Ashley lost her baby nephew at nine months. Ashley is passionate about being passionate and helping others find what lights them up. Ashley was overwhelmed with grief after her nephew passed away. Ashley has channeled her grief into being more empathetic to people who are grieving.

[00:08:01] - After the loss of her nephew, she went to a counselor and started journaling and talking to people who were also grieving to help her deal with her grief. She believes that being there for each other and being in community with each other helps to heal the grief.

[00:10:33] - This experience has empowered her to be more open and vulnerable. She used to be too shy to talk about things that were bothering her, but now she feels more confident. Community is important, and focusing on the things that we have in common is also important.

[00:12:41] - After the death of her nephew, she had to find a new way to connect with people. She co-hosts the Kindness Community on Twitter with Dan Roeder and she believes that the present is the most important thing that we have.

[00:16:06] - Self-care is whatever makes you feel good and keeps your body moving and moving in the best way possible. Self-care looks different to different people and we need to find what works for us. For her, prayer, aromatherapy, and candles are her main sources of self-care. She also takes walks in nature and looks at the sky.

[00:19:30] - There's a misunderstanding about what creativity is and how it's defined. Many people say they're not creative, but they're missing out. Creativity is not about being good at something. It's about creating something for the sake of creating. I believe we are all creative beings because we were made in the image of a creator.

[00:21:45] - Ruth is grateful for the conversation she had with Ashley. Ashley is a Pride design designer. She is on Twitter at @APrideDesigns and on Instagram and her website is https:AshleyPride.com. Ashley looks forward to continuing the conversation on Twitter.

Connect with Ruth: https://linktr.ee/ruthlsnyder